Christmas Day

Guess who came....

All kids get stockings...even the furry ones

Santa was equally unimpressed with the brownies

A series of unusual events led to the kids and us waking up at 5:00 am on Christmas morning. You read correctly - 5:00 am. I am fortunate in the that my kids never wake up at 5:00 am, but I guess if you are going to do it one day out of the year, Christmas morning would be that day. When Lily first woke up, she did not even remember that it was Christmas morning, but when she did remember, she lit up like a light bulb! We were downstairs in a flash and then the present opening began....

Oh...pretty tools...

Terra sniffs out her presents

William really got into opening the gifts. As a parent, it was so fun to watch.

A Strawberry Shortcake fan and collector. Nature or nurture? We may never know.

Big sister there to guide and assist and share to the joy. Love it!

The wonder and magic of it all

William's favorite gift, hands down: THE big blue ball.

Lily organizes her loot into piles by category, so very mommy of her.

William's gifts

Lily's gifts covered all things "Lily" - My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcake, princesses, American Girl, baking and books

Each person received one gift from the family this year as well. Lily decided that her remote-controlled train would make an excellent gift to William - and it did!

Lily received her highly desired "wedding dress"

Carl surprised me with new dining room chairs!!! They are perfect, and I love them!
(Carl was not left out - he got clothes that will be seen in future pictures.) :)

Getting up at 5 am comes at a price, but my hope is that she was dreaming of our wonderful Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve, in one word, was wonderful. It snowed on and off for a total of about 5 inches during the day, and we enjoyed the entire day at home, all together. I could not have asked for anything better.

Snow!!

Backyard winter wonderland

Lily's snowman. She insisted that the snowman have short arms (something to do with T. rex), and she named him "Fall Beauty". Turns out that he was aptly named since he did come tumbling down later that day. However she was quite happy with the "beautiful mountains" he transformed into.

Such strenuous work calls for a mid-day nap

Lily is naturally super-excited for weeks leading up to the big day. We figured that since they would have so many presents to open on Christmas day, we would spread out the presents by opening gifts from afar on Christmas Eve. This worked out great, as it fulfilled her need to open presents, and I felt like she could better appreciate what others gave her instead of mixing them in with Santa's gifts on Christmas Day. I definitely want to continue this practice in future years.

Rapunzel hair from Grandpa Deetz and Susan and a movie from Tori and family! Yay!

More books! Super yay!

William with his new truck

Lily and I made brownies that day for Santa. We "hid" spinach and carrots in the brownies since we would be partaking in this dessert as well and William is determined to be a no-vegetable kind of guy. So why not hide them in other foods, right? Well, that may work on other kids, but so far this has not worked even once with William. I have tried out about 7 recipes from the cookbook Deceptively Delicious on William, and suffice to say, he thinks that the recipes are neither deceptive nor delicious.

Mmm....brownies!

What the....?

Oh, I think I just threw up a little in my mouth

Christmas Eve Eve

On Thursday, the 23rd, my parents came over for an early dinner and present-opening. We had some delicious (if I do say so myself) pork tenderloin and some mighty tasty homemade mac and cheese (with hidden squash and cauliflower). We then listened to my dad's favorite Christmas song by John Lennon while opening gifts. It just doesn't get any better than that!

Dad with one of our favorite gifts, our little William

Vroom, vroom!

Lily opening her very special teapot set from Grandma and Papa. You may notice a couple of things in this picture. One, Lily is wearing a summer dress. For some reason, Lily enjoys changing (usually multiple times in a day) and typically ends up with summer wear on at some point. As long as we are not going out, I figure there is no harm in it, aside from the extra laundry I have to do. Two, my hand is submerged in cold water in this picture. Being the clever girl that I am, I grabbed the handle of the skillet after I took it out of the oven. Genius, I tell you.

This picture could not have been placed any better - Lily truly does personify "joy" to me.

Christmas in Memphis

Sometimes I have so many pictures to post that it becomes overwhelming, and then I put it off which leads to more pictures building up...and the cycle continues. So I'm going to post a little at a time until I get caught up. This year we attended fewer large-gathering Christmas celebrations and instead had a series of mini-celebrations. This led to a much more laid back holiday season. The celebrations spanned about 2 weeks which I think the kids loved, and we enjoyed the less hectic pace.

Our first celebration occurred way back on the 14th of December. Carl had an interview for fellowship at a hospital in Memphis. This gave us the perfect excuse for a short trip to see Angela and Zach before the holidays. We love visiting Ang & Zach and are happy that they are doing so well. Plus, I love their house as well as Angela's decorating style, so it is always fun to see the new changes that they've made!

The Auburn tree. Zach is an uber-Auburn-fan and wanted an Auburn tree for Christmas this year. Angela did a good job with decorating the tree considering that she was working with orange and blue for the colors!

Big-boy William sitting at the kitchen table

Presents! Lily loves her new baby Princess Aurora.

A fun new school bus for William!


Ang & Zach like their exotic wood serving dish, coming from the very exclusive store, Tarjay

Utter surprise, astonishment (and bewilderment, Zach?) at receiving a new vacuum cleaner from mom & dad :)

While Carl was interviewing the next day, Ang, the kids and I hit the town. Angela took us to a really adorable Christmas display (at the nature center, maybe? I can't remember!) We really enjoyed this outing, followed by some fine Memphis bbq.

Lining the entire second level of the building was Christmas trees decorated in every theme imaginable. It was a contest among local businesses and such with winners in different categories. What a cute idea!

They also had several displays showing how Christmas is celebrated around the world - love, love this idea as well.

The next part of the experience included a large area dedicated to Christmas scenes with animals that moved and sang. As a bonus, they gave out little cards with a list of things to find while walking through the display for a fun "I spy" game!

The next part of the display included gingerbread houses made by various people. Again, this was a competition with different categories, and the display was nothing short of amazing.

The final exhibit included one of the best train displays that we've seen yet - William was way into it!

Happy Christmas Eve!!

We are so excited to be spending the entire day together at home, as a family. That's right folks, Carl's off, and we are loving it! The plans for the day include tea parties, baking, reading, playing board games and card games, romping around in the freshly fallen snow, eating yummy homemade soup and having a Christmas movie marathon. This is what the holidays are all about - enjoying and appreciating time with the ones you love. I live for these days.

Lily and I had a tea party already this morning. I learned that she has 100 children (which she thought I would think is silly. Pish, posh - the more, the merrier!) I asked her how she takes care of all of them, and she said, "Here and there. It all seems to work out". Then she said that they go to school in the afternoons while she goes to work. When I asked her where she works, she informed me that she works at the Weather Channel. She said, "Sometimes we get it wrong though. Like on Saturday, I said that it was going to be sunny all day, but there was actually a little rain in the afternoon". Then she gave a little chuckle with an "Oh..."

Yesterday we had a mini Christmas celebration with my parents at our house. Both kids love when Grandma and Papa come over, especially when presents are involved! ;) This was the first time that William actually unwrapped a gift all by himself (which makes me all the more excited for tomorrow morning). But William really stunned the crowd when he picked up the wrapping paper, walked from the family room through the kitchen, opened up the cabinet under the sink, threw the wrapping paper in the trash can, shut the cabinet door, and walked back through the kitchen into the family room to play with his new truck. I guess William appreciates a tidy house!!

Goodbye sweet Livy

We received the very sad news that Carl's cousin, Livy, had passed in the late evening/early morning hours. Livy was so sweet with such a sunny disposition, and she will be greatly, greatly missed.

With her brother, Roger, at his wedding

With her mom and niece Lainey

With her mom and Lily

Want to try this? It's good!

The four L's: Livy, Lily, Lainey and Lucy

Dinner at the lakehouse

Thanksgiving 2010

Opening an early birthday present


Our hearts go out to Livy's family - Carl's Aunt Pam, Uncle Randy and cousin Roger and his family.